The present invention relates to a toy building set comprising a plurality of building elements which each is provided with at least one hinge part of a plurality of hinge parts comprising a first type of hinge parts and a second type of hinge parts, said first type of hinge parts comprising a cylindrical rod-shaped shaft part extending uninterruptedly between two flanges of a building element, said second type of hinge parts comprising a claw device consisting of two elastic fingers extending outwards from a building element at a distance from each other so that the two elastic fingers between them form a track which is narrowed at the distal end of the fingers with respect to the building element, said rod-shaped shaft part having a thickness greater than the width of the narrowed part of the track so that the rod-shaped shaft part may be pressed into the track through the narrowed part of the track, whereby the fingers are deformed elastically from each other and hold the shaft part in such a manner that, when pressed into the track, it is mounted rotatably about its longitudinal axis in the track.
Such hinge parts are known from e.g. U.S. Pat. No 5,582,488, and are suitable for situations where a good holding force is desired between the hinge parts, as a relatively great force is required to insert the rod-shaped shaft part into the track, and as, subsequently, it Is possible to achieve a high friction between the two hinge parts after the assembly.
From U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,104 another system is known, comprising building elements having hinge parts for forming a releasably hingedly connection between two such elements. One of the hinge parts according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,104 is formed as a truncated cone and the other hinge part is adapted for releasably receiving the truncated cones by elastic movement of at least one part of the building elements so as to form a hinge connection. The system is furthermore provided with clamp means for blocking the elastic movement and thereby fixing the interconnecting hinge parts.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide a toy building set of the type mentioned in the opening paragraph, which, with a few subcomponents, allows selective building of hinge functions with a high friction and holding force, and which additionally allows building of hinge functions which do not require a great friction, and which do not require the same force to interconnect the hinge parts.
This is achieved according to the invention in that the hinge parts additionally comprise a third type of hinge parts, which comprises two elastic parallel female flanges extending at a mutual distance outwards from a building element, and that each of the female flanges, on the side facing the parallel female flange, is provided with a shaft stud which has an external diameter corresponding to the thickness of the rod-shaped shaft part.
As a result, two types of hinges may be built using just three hinge elements, different with respect to the hinge parts themselves, of a building set. A first type which involves a relatively great friction between the hinge parts after the assembly of these since just the one hinge part with the fingers is deformed, and a second type where the friction between the hinge parts is considerably smaller since both the one hinge part and the other hinge part are deformed elastically by the assembly of the hinge parts.
In a preferred embodiment, the shaft studs are shaped as truncated cones whose tapering ends face each other, and whose largest diameter is larger than the width of the track at the narrowing. This facilitates the assembly of the hinge parts considerably, as the inclined faces on each of the shaft studs serve as guide faces so that less force is required to deform the fingers and the female flanges during the assembly.
In addition, it is particularly advantageous if the two fingers have a width which corresponds to the distance between the female flanges. It is ensured hereby that the engagement of the female side faces against the fingers prevents the hinge link from being upset unintentionally.
A particularly good and uniform friction between the hinge links is achieved in that the track is shaped as a circular-cylindrical face at the opposite end with respect to the narrowing.
Even more advantageously, if the circular-cylindrical part of the track has a diameter which is smaller than the largest diameter of each of the shaft studs, a certain friction is achieved between the shaft studs and the track after the assembly of the hinge parts.